Uber's employees have encountered something suspicious on their Slack messaging app.
The popular ride-hailing app has recently revealed it is investigating a cybersecurity incident that led to the temporary deactivation of its internal messaging service and engineering systems.
The company has yet to conclude its investigation of the incident as of the writing of this article.
Uber Cybersecurity Incident Investigation Details
We are currently responding to a cybersecurity incident. We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available.
— Uber Comms (@Uber_Comms) September 16, 2022
Uber mentioned through its official Uber Comms Twitter account that it is currently responding to a cybersecurity incident, though it did not provide the specifics of the attack.
According to The New York Times' report on the matter, the company's employees received a massage through their Slack messaging app from an unknown attacker that read: "I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach." This message was then followed by a bunch of emojis and a list of several internal databases the attacker allegedly compromised.
To add insult to injury, the attacker also posted an explicit photo on an internal information page for employees to look at.
Unfortunately, Uber nor the Times didn't reveal which internal databases were broken into. It is also unclear if the attacker had compromised Uber's database for its users' data.
However, an Uber spokesperson revealed that the attacker was able to breach Uber's databases and messaging service by compromising an Uber employee's Slack account and using their victim's credentials to access the company's databases.
To do so, the attacker said to The Times that he talked to and convinced an Uber employee to give them their login credentials while pretending to be a corporate information technology person.
The attacker, who is only 18 years old, said he was inspired to hack into Uber's database because of its so-called "weak security," providing screenshots of internal Uber systems as proof of his successful access.
Uber's Response to The Hacking
From an Uber employee:
— Sam Curry (@samwcyo) September 16, 2022
Feel free to share but please don’t credit me: at Uber, we got an “URGENT” email from IT security saying to stop using Slack. Now anytime I request a website, I am taken to a REDACTED page with a pornographic image and the message “F*** you wankers.”
Shortly after the attacker's message was reported to the higher-ups, Uber took down its Slack internal messaging service and engineering systems to investigate the incident, per Engadget.
The company then instructed employees to stop using Slack to avoid the explicit image the attacker posted on an internal information page, per Twitter user Sam Curry, who cited an anonymous Uber employee.
The employee probably asked for anonymity to protect his identity and his job within the company.
Uber is now cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation of the incident, with the company promising to post updates about it in the immediate future.
Uber is no stranger to being hacked and dealing with hackers. According to CNET's article, the company agreed to pay a hacker $100,000 to delete the information they illegally acquired and had them sign a nondisclosure agreement.
This agreement went through without the company disclosing the hack to the public, which it is required to do within a few days by law in California, the state where it is headquartered.
